Christina+Pearson

At around 7:00 a.m. on December 24, 1908, 38-year-old homemaker Christina Pearson, a Swedish immigrant, died in Chicago's Bavarian Hospital from compilations of an abortion perpetrated on December 17.

She had developed septic peritonitis.

Dr. L. A. Mueller was held by the coroner, but for reasons not given in the source document he was not charged.

Christina's abortion was typical in that it was evidently [|performed by a physician].

Note, please, that with general public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see [|Abortion Deaths 1900-1909].

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion]

Sources:
 * [|Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database]
 * death certificate



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